1. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to a nozzle assembly for breaking emulsions in hydrocarbon fluids, and in particular, to a nozzle assembly having an adjustable impingement plate therein for breaking hydrocarbon emulsions in crude oil.
2. Description of Art
In the processing of crude oils prior to refinery separations, the presence of intractable hydrocarbon emulsions often presents serious operational problems leading to oil losses, contamination, corrosion, fouling or plugging, and expensive environmental treatment/disposal costs. These hydrocarbon emulsions are often present when the crude is a heavy crude having an API gravity of about 20 or less, and particularly those with an API gravity from 7 to 12. These crudes are especially hard to produce, and when produced cause operational difficulties in refining.
These intractable hydrocarbon emulsions typically include as constituent components water-in-oil or oil-in-water, oil wetted and/or water wetted solids as well as a variety of additional difficult-to-separate constituent components. Some of the waxes and bitumen present with the oil in the underground formation, as well as finely divided inorganic solids such as sands or clays which act as emulsion stabilizers, provide a shield at the oil-water interface which prevents the water droplets from coalescing. These intractable emulsions pose a serious disposal problem and represent a great economic waste. Previous processes for breaking-up hydrocarbon emulsions are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,938,876, 5,738,762, 5,882,506, and 5,948,242, each of which is incorporated herein in its entirety.
Crude oils can also be contaminated by heavy metals and undesirable organic compounds such as oxygen, sulfur and nitrogen. These materials are usually intimately associated with the organic interfacial structures of emulsions, thus exacerbating the intractability of the emulsion and also causing corrosion and undesirable contamination in refinery processes.
Often, hard to handle, heavy crude oil in many parts of the world is, therefore, deemed uneconomic to produce and refine. Thus, there is a need for oil emulsion breaking/separation technology suitable for use adjacent to heavy crude oil producing fields where the heavy crude oil exits from the producing well combined with considerable water and solids.
It is known in the art to utilize a fluid flow nozzle, such as a Venturi nozzle, to break and separate a hydrocarbon emulsion into its various constituent components by flashing the emulsion through the nozzle and dropping the pressure of the emulsion.